EAST MONTPELIER — If you’re a Girl Scout, crunch time for cookie-selling season is fast approaching, and that fact isn’t lost on the seven East Montpelier fifth-graders in Troop 30890.

No worries. They’ve got a plan, and if you’ve got a hankering for a box of Thin Mints, Samoas, or Tagalongs (who doesn’t?), we’ll tell you where you can find them.

We’re told the girls in Becky Brown’s troop will be setting up shop at the Berlin Mall on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and selling cookies (they’re $4 a box this year) to anyone who is interested.

Brown tells us it will be the first of three cookie booths her troop has planned over the next month to raise money for uniforms, badges and other supplies. It’s also a learning experience.

“They learn cash-handling skills and customer service skills and how to deal with people outside of their comfort zone,” Brown says.

If you can’t make it to the mall on Saturday, Brown and her girls will be selling cookies at Tractor Supply on March 9 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and at Shaw’s supermarket in Berlin on March 23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Or, Brown says, you could just give her a call at 522-2035 or email her at Beckio79@hotmail.com and she’ll take your order.

Walk and talk

BARRE — City planners will be out and about over the next three months, and they are hoping they won’t be alone.

Seems the Planning Commission is hosting a series of monthly “Walk-and-Talk” events that will start this weekend and focus on specific neighborhoods.

The first Walk-and-Talk is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Planning commissioners and anyone who is interested in joining them will gather at the Vermont History Center (that’s the former Spaulding Graded School for longtime residents and the original Spaulding High School for really longtime residents).

The route will be over to Currier Park, then onto East, Tremont, Camp, Washington, Hill and College streets, then back on Washington Street to the History Center, where warm beverages will be waiting.

Residents are invited to walk along with the Planning Commission for the entire route, to join in the walk at any point along the way, or just to come out and talk with everyone as they come by.

The walk should take about 45 minutes, and the group (the more the merrier) will be back at the History Center by 10:30 a.m. for a neighborhood meeting that will feature an overview of the draft city plan, “Our Plan for a Healthy Future.” Planning commissioners hope to pick residents’ brains while plying them with pizza at the event, which is free and open to all.

A second Walk-and-Talk is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, March 14, at 5:30 p.m. in the north end of the city. The final event is planned for Thursday, April 11, at 5:30 p.m. in the southern part of the city.

If you’d like more details about Saturday’s Walk-and-Talk, including a route map and information about the draft city plan, you can find it online at www.healthyfuture-barrecity.com.

World view

WAITSFIELD — A first- and second-grade Waitsfield Elementary School teacher will spend a week in Brazil as a 2013 Pearson Foundation Global Learning Fellow.

Thomas Young is one of 36 public school teachers who will spend a year enhancing their global understanding through the program of the National Education Association Foundation.

Young will tour Brazil from June 19 through 27, including visiting schools in Săo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to observe and interact with Brazilian teachers, and investigating Brazil’s historical and cultural significance.

“In order for students to be prepared for the global age, their educators must be equipped with the knowledge, skills and disposition to teach in the global age,” said Harriet Sanford, president and CEO of the NEA Foundation, in a statement. “Our Global Learning Fellows program has an intentional focus on supporting educators as they strengthen their global competencies: investigating the world beyond one’s immediate environment; recognizing multiple perspectives; communicating ideas effectively with diverse audiences; and taking action to improve conditions.”